Pope Leo IX condemns simony at Reims

1050

At the Council of Reims, the reforming pope forced bishops to swear they had not bought their offices. Several who could not failed on the spot and were deposed. Leo's traveling councils were turning what had been local church politics into a pan-Latin reform movement spanning all of Christendom. The spectacle of bishops publicly humiliated for corruption sent tremors through every episcopal court in Europe.